Peter, The Rock

There seems to be a rift between Protestants and Catholics when it comes to the primacy of St. Peter as Chief Apostle and first Pope.  The Catholic belief is that St. Peter was appointed by Jesus to lead the Apostles and the Church in his absence (Matt. 16:15-19, Luke 22:31-32, John 21:15-19).  The classic Protestant position is that and that our only authority is the written word of God - the Bible.

As you know, the Lord said to Peter, “And so I say to you, you are Peter (Petros), and upon this rock (Petra) I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”  Many non-Catholics believe Peter is not the Rock because confession of faith.  It couldn’t be Peter because the Greek words used here are Petros, meaning, small stone and Petra, meaning, large mass of rock.  They say that the Rock is Jesus because he is referred to as Rock elsewhere, including, Matt. 21:42 and 1 Pet. 2:3-8.  The problem with this is that Jesus didn’t speak Greek to his Apostles - he spoke Aramaic.

What Jesus actually said was, “And so I say to you, you are Kepha, and upon this rock Kepha I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”  This is why St. Peter is referred to as Cephas in many of St. Paul’s letters, because Cephas is the closest Greek transliteration of the Aramaic, Kepha.

There is another problem for the non-Catholic.  Petra is a feminine Greek noun and could hardly be used to describe a man, so the word was translated as Petros in Scripture because it was being used in reference to a man.  Jesus clearly appointed St. Peter as earthly head of the Church and Chief Apostle here in Matthew’s Gospel as well as Luke 22:31-32, where he told Peter that he prayed for him to strengthen the other Apostles in his absence and in John 21:15-19, where he told Peter 3 times to feed his sheep.